Page 38 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

She picked up the bag of nails and interrupted Alex again. ‘Give me a hammer.’

‘Pardon?’

‘A hammer.’

‘I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.’ Alex stood back from his work. ‘You’ve got such precious fingers, very little thumbs.’

‘Lucky, aren’t I? Means they’re easy to miss,’ she said smartly. ‘What makes you think a girl can’t hammer in a few nails?’ She’d done all the DIY in the little flat her mother and she had rented—well, as much of it as she could without doing worse damage. Plumbing was beyond her, but nailing up a few fence palings was a cinch. She went to the end of the fence and got started.

Alex had dug the last of the holes for the back fence and he and Lorenzo concreted the poles in. They’d obviously worked together a lot. And she wasn’t noticing how good Alex looked grubby.

Finally they stopped for food. Alex magicked a hamper from in the boot of his car. Dani stared at the yummy pottles he was finding forks for.

He noticed her salivating, and his grin was too cocky. ‘I know a great deli.’

‘How come you two are so good at this?’

‘Summers working on a farm. Fence post after fence post.’ Alex handed her a pottle of pasta salad and a fork.

He’d spent his summers working? She was pleasantly surprised—would have thought a richer-than-rich playboy prince like him would have been off gallivanting round the globe every semester break. She looked at the perfectly straight fence posts. Nope, he was definitely experienced with this.

As soon as she filled the pit that was her stomach she turned her back and got on with her section. Banging in the nails was a rewarding way to bum off some of her energy. It was accruing again, in giant tubfuls—the desire to be with him.

‘What makesyouso good at this?’

She jumped. He was standing right beside her, tracing his finger along the palings where she’d hammered the nails in a neat row.

‘Necessity.’

His brows lifted. ‘Is there nothing you can’t do all on your own, Dani?’

‘Not a thing.’ She slung the hammer back into the tool box, glanced up to see a frown on his face. ‘What?’

He brushed the backs of his fingers along her jaw, slid them up to sweep that annoying bit of fringe back. ‘Are you sure about that?’

His tone was different—loaded with meaning. He wasn’t teasing her. It wasn’t a reference to the way he’d played with her in bed last night. His eyes held none of that heat; instead it was all seriousness, all concern.

Eli.

Her heart started thundering. If she asked Alex to help, it would happen. He would find him. And wasn’t that what she wanted more than anything in the world? Suddenly she was scared. Really, really scared of what she might find. And too scared not to search. She watched, distracted, as Alex and Lorenzo loaded the rest of the gear on the truck, then all three stood for a moment and admired the pristine fence.

Alex shot Lorenzo a look. ‘Tempted?’

‘Like you wouldn’t believe.’

Alex laughed. ‘Bad boy. Come back for a drink instead.’

Dani saw Lorenzo glance from Alex to her and then back to Alex. ‘Not today, thanks.’

Once they were in the car she just had to ask. ‘What was he tempted to do?’

Alex grinned. ‘Renz liked to tag as a teen.’

‘Graffiti?’ Dani’s brows lifted. ‘Did you help him get on the straight and narrow?’

‘Are you kidding?’ Alex laughed. ‘I got him the paint.’

He disappeared upstairs when they got home. Dani’s body had seized up in the car; it was all she could do to hobble to the kitchen. She got ice-cold water from the fridge and carefully sat on a stool.

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